African Myths

This is a FLAME TREE Book

Publisher & Creative Director: Nick Wells

Contributors, authors, editors and sources for this series include:

Loren Auerbach, Norman Bancroft-Hunt, George W. Bateman, E.M. Berens, Katharine Berry Judson, W.H.I. Bleek and L. C. Lloyd, Laura Bulbeck, Jeremiah Curtin, Elphinstone Dayrell, O.B. Duane, Dr Ray Dunning, W.W. Gibbings, H. A. Guerber, James A. Honey M.D., Jake Jackson, Joseph Jacobs, Judith John, J.W. Mackail, Donald Mackenzie, Chris McNab, Minnie Martin, Professor James Riordan, Sara Robson, Lewis Spence, Henry M. Stanley, Capt. C.H. Stigand, Rachel Storm, K.E. Sullivan, François-Marie Arouet a.k.a. Voltaire, E.A. Wallis Budge, Dr Roy Willis, Epiphanius Wilson, Alice Werner, E.T.C. Werner.

FLAME TREE PUBLISHING

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First published 2019

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PRINT ISBN: 978-1-78755-274-6

EBOOK ISBN: 978-1-78755-634-8

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Contents

Series Foreword

Introduction to African Myths

African Storytelling

A Diverse Mythology

Origins of the World

Witchcraft and Sorcery

Animal Myths

Sacrifice and Offerings

Death

Myths of Origin, Death & The Afterlife

The Creation of the Universe

Obatala Creates Mankind

Olokun’s Revenge

Agemo Outwits Olokun

The Gods Descend from the Sky

God Abandons the Earth

The Coming of Darkness

The Sun and the Moon

Why the Sun and the Moon Live in the Sky

Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes

The Story of the Prince Who Insisted on Possessing the Moon

The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder

How Death First Entered the World

Wanjiru, Sacrificed by Her Family

The Chameleon (How Death Came into the World)

King Kitamba Kia Shiba (and the Kingdom of Death)

How Ngunza Defied Death

The Man Who Would Shoot Iruwa

The Road to Heaven

The Tale of Murile

How a Girl Reached the Land of the Ghosts and Came Back

Why Dead People Are Buried

The King and the Ju Ju Tree

Animal Stories & Fables

How Anansi Became a Spider

Anansi Obtains the Sky God’s Stories

Anansi and the Corn Cob

Tortoise and the Wisdom of the World

The Tortoise and the Baboon

Tortoise and the Hot-water Test

The Tortoise and the Elephant

Tortoises Hunting Ostriches

Why the Worms Live Underneath the Ground

How the Leopard Got His Spots

The Donkey Who Sinned

The Two Suns

Gihilihili: The Snake-man

The Story of the Hunters and the Big Snake

How Ra-Molo Became a Snake

The Ape, the Snake and the Lion

How the Dog Came to Live with Man

The Truth About Cock’s Comb

Chameleon Wins a Wife

The Chief and the Tigers

The Lion of Manda

The Hyena and the Moonbeam

The Jackal and the Wolf

Cloud Eating

Cock and Jackal

The Lion, the Hyena and the Hare

Why the Bat Flies by Night

The Fish and the Leopard’s Wife; or, Why the Fish Lives in the Water

Why the Flies Bother the Cows

Why the Cat Kills Rats

Segu the Honey Guide

Why a Hawk Kills Chickens

The King and the Nsiat Bird

The Kites and the Crows

Tink-Tinkje

The Lost Message

The Monkey’s Fiddle

The Lioness and the Ostrich

Crocodile’s Treason

The Judgment of Baboon

The Zebra Stallion

When Lion Could Fly

Why Has Jackal a Long Black Stripe on His Back?

Horse Cursed by Sun

Lion’s Defeat

The Monkey, the Shark and the Washerman’s Donkey

A Hospitable Gorilla

Stories of Wit & Wisdom

The Rich Man and the Poor Man

How Walukaga Answered the King

The Young Man and the Skull

The Story of the Glutton

The Feast

The Three Tests

The Two Rogues

The Girls Who Wanted New Teeth

The Kinyamkela’s Bananas

The Two Brothers

The Tale of Nyengebule

The Story of Takane

How Khosi Chose a Wife

Lelimo and the Magic Cap

The Famine

The Cat’s Tail

The Young Thief

The Woodcutter and His Donkey

Kitangatanga of the Sea

The Story of the Fools

The Poor Man and his Wife of Wood

The Sultan’s Daughter

The Woman with Two Skins

Ituen and the King’s Wife

Of the Pretty Stranger Who Killed the King

Of the Fat Woman Who Melted Away

The Lucky Fisherman

Goso, the Teacher

The Magician and the Sultan’s Son

King Gumbi and His Lost Daughter

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Series Foreword

Stretching back to the oral traditions of thousands of years ago, tales of heroes and disaster, creation and conquest have been told by many different civilizations in many different ways. Their impact sits deep within our culture even though the detail in the tales themselves are a loose mix of historical record, transformed narrative and the distortions of hundreds of storytellers.

Today the language of mythology lives with us: our mood is jovial, our countenance is saturnine, we are narcissistic and our modern life is hermetically sealed from others. The nuances of myths and legends form part of our daily routines and help us navigate the world around us, with its half truths and biased reported facts.

The nature of a myth is that its story is already known by most of those who hear it, or read it. Every generation brings a new emphasis, but the fundamentals remain the same: a desire to understand and describe the events and relationships of the world. Many of the great stories are archetypes that help us find our own place, equipping us with tools for self-understanding, both individually and as part of a broader culture.

For Western societies it is Greek mythology that speaks to us most clearly. It greatly influenced the mythological heritage of the ancient Roman civilization and is the lens through which we still see the Celts, the Norse and many of the other great peoples and religions. The Greeks themselves learned much from their neighbours, the Egyptians, an older culture that became weak with age and incestuous leadership.

It is important to understand that what we perceive now as mythology had its own origins in perceptions of the divine and the rituals of the sacred. The earliest civilizations, in the crucible of the Middle East, in the Sumer of the third millennium

bc

, are the source to which many of the mythic archetypes can be traced. As humankind collected together in cities for the first time, developed writing and industrial scale agriculture, started to irrigate the rivers and attempted to control rather than be at the mercy of its environment, humanity began to write down its tentative explanations of natural events, of floods and plagues, of disease.

Early stories tell of Gods (or god-like animals in the case of tribal societies such as African, Native American or Aboriginal cultures) who are crafty and use their wits to survive, and it is reasonable to suggest that these were the first rulers of the gathering peoples of the earth, later elevated to god-like status with the distance of time. Such tales became more political as cities vied with each other for supremacy, creating new Gods, new hierarchies for their pantheons. The older Gods took on primordial roles and became the preserve of creation and destruction, leaving the new gods to deal with more current, everyday affairs. Empires rose and fell, with Babylon assuming the mantle from Sumeria in the 1800s

bc

, then in turn to be swept away by the Assyrians of the 1200s

bc

; then the Assyrians and the Egyptians were subjugated by the Greeks, the Greeks by the Romans and so on, leading to the spread and assimilation of common themes, ideas and stories throughout the world.

The survival of history is dependent on the telling of good tales, but each one must have the ‘feeling’ of truth, otherwise it will be ignored. Around the firesides, or embedded in a book or a computer, the myths and legends of the past are still the living materials of retold myth, not restricted to an exploration of origins. Now we have devices and global communications that give us unparalleled access to a diversity of traditions. We can find out about Native American, Indian, Chinese and tribal African mythology in a way that was denied to our ancestors, we can find connections, match the archaeology, religion and the mythologies of the world to build a comprehensive image of the human experience that is endlessly fascinating.

The stories in this book provide an introduction to the themes and concerns of the myths and legends of their respective cultures, with a short introduction to provide a linguistic, geographic and political context. This is where the myths have arrived today, but undoubtedly over the next millennia, they will transform again whilst retaining their essential truths and signs.

Jake Jackson

General Editor

Introduction to African Myths

Africa is a vast continent , over three times the size of the United States of America, incorporating a huge expanse of desert and scrubland, mountains, valleys, rain forests, swamps, rivers and lakes. For much of its history, however, a large part of southern Africa has remained cut off from the outside world. The Sahara Desert, which divides the north from the south, covers nearly one third of the continent, presenting an almost impossible obstacle for even the most resilient traveller.

North Africa stretches from Morocco to Egypt, and down through the Nile valley as far as Ethiopia. This rich and fertile region nurtures a distinctly Mediterranean culture dominated by Muslim and Christian religions. Africa south of the Sahara – the area from which the myths and legends of this book derive – extends from the east and west Sudan, down through the savannas and central rain forests right into South Africa.

Sub-Saharan Africa is a land of colourful contrasts and diverse cultures, many of which have existed for hundreds and even thousands of years. Archaeological research has revealed that by about 1200

bc

, rich and powerful civilizations, such as that of Ancient Egypt, had developed in the northern part of Africa. Nothing now remains of these impressive empires, but their customs and beliefs are well recorded. Relatively little is known, on the other hand, of the earliest history of the peoples living south of the Sahara. Geographical isolation dictated that these peoples developed largely by themselves. Written culture became widespread only in the nineteenth century; before that time, the art of writing was completely unknown to Africans in the equatorial forests and the south.

Europeans remained ignorant of the region’s rich history until the fifteenth century when the Portuguese arrived on the west coast, landing at the Cape of Good Hope. Before long, they were transporting thousands of African slaves to Europe and the Americas, a lucrative trade that continued until the mid-nineteenth century.

During the late nineteenth century, white settlers, among them the French, English and Dutch, began to explore further inland, and throughout the 1880s and 1890s they competed furiously for ownership of territories rich in natural resources, carving up the continent between them. By 1900, almost all of Africa was in European hands, remaining under European control until the 1950s, when the colonies began to demand their independence.

The radical changes forced on the African continent as a result of colonialism and the slave trade led to the destruction of many traditional societies which had evolved over the centuries. Much information on Africa’s cultural heritage remains buried forever, since there are no ancient books or documents to enlighten us.

African Storytelling

But Africa has always had a powerful tradition of storytelling. Before a European way of life prevailed, the old religions, rules and customs provided the raw material for those tribesmen who first promoted this extremely colourful oral culture. African people have persevered with their storytelling and continue to leave records of their history in songs and stories they pass down from parent to child through the generations. Stories are commonly told in the evening when the day’s work is done, accompanied by mime and frequently music. They are an important medium of entertainment and instruction woven out of the substance of human experience and are very often realistic and down-to-earth.

The first African stories to reach western ears were written down only at the turn of the century when a number of missionaries, anthropologists and colonial officials arrived in Africa and made a concerted effort to record descriptions of the rituals and ceremonies they witnessed, and to transcribe as faithfully as possible tales told to them by old and young Africans before they had disappeared altogether. Some of these committed scholars wrote down what the elders told them about their gods, while others transcribed narrative myths, fables, poems, proverbs, riddles and even magic spells. Most of the stories in this collection are from these original first-hand sources.

A Diverse Mythology

No real unified mythology exists in Africa, however. The migration of its peoples, the political fragmentation, and the sheer size of the continent have resulted in a huge diversity of lifestyles and traditions. Literally thousands of completely different languages are spoken, 2,000 in West Africa alone between the Senegal River and the headwaters of the Congo River. A complete collection of all myths of the African peoples would fill countless volumes, even if we were to ignore the fact that the collection is being added to all the time by modern-day enthusiasts.

To give a useful summary of the main characteristics of African mythology is therefore an extremely difficult task but, broadly speaking, a number of beliefs, ideas and themes are shared by African peoples, embellished by a creative spirit unique to a tribe, village or region. Nearly every tribe has its own set of cosmological myths – tales which attempt to explore the origin of the universe, the unseen forces of nature, the existence of God or a supreme being, the creation of mankind and the coming of mortality. Other stories, detailing the outrageous adventures and anti-social behaviour of one or another trickster figure are also common to nearly every tribe. Moral stories abound and animal fables, in particular, are some of the most popular of all African tales.

This book is divided into three sections containing only a cross-section of African tales. It is intended to provide an introduction to African mythology and is in no way a comprehensive study of its subject. A selection of creation stories, animal stories, and tales which amuse and teach has been made with the aim of providing as interesting and entertaining an overview as possible. But first, we will outline a little more about some key African mythological elements, beliefs and traditional practices.

Origins of the World

Supreme God

Despite its rich diversity, many African myths contain related themes, including gods and the origin of the world and humans. Most peoples in tropical and southern Africa share the hazy notion of a supreme sky god who originally lived on earth, but moved up to the sky by means of a spider’s thread when humans started misbehaving. Earth and water are invariably goddesses. For the Yoruba, Ile is the goddess of earth and mother of all creatures; Yemoja is the goddess of water – her messengers are crocodile and hippopotamus ­and her daughter Aje is goddess of the Niger river from which Nigeria takes its name.

The Great Serpent

Given the prevalence of dangerous snakes in many parts of Africa, it is hardly surprising that several peoples talk of creation in terms of a huge serpent, usually a python, out of whose body the world and all creatures came. In northern areas, the sky god first made the cosmic serpent, whose head is in the sky and whose tail is in underground waters. In central and southern regions, the primordial serpent Chinawezi is identified with the rainbow. Whatever shape God’s intermediary took, it is common for God to create sky and earth first, then fire and water, thunder and lightning. After these elements, the supreme being made the first living beings: a human, an elephant, a snake and a cow. In other legends, the supreme god first sent rain, lightning, locusts and then twins. Twins are often referred to as the ‘children of heaven’ and in some parts thought lucky, in others very unlucky and in the past have even been killed.

First Man and Woman

A widespread belief among the Zulus is that the first man and woman burst out of a reed; others say from a tree, yet others from a hole in the ground to the west of Lake Nyasa in Malawi. Many peoples do not speculate on the creation. The Masai of Kenya and Tanzania have a story about a time when meat hung down from the sky for people to eat. When it moved out of reach, people built a bamboo tower to the sky. To their surprise, sky messengers came down with three gifts: a bow to shoot the new wild animals in the bush, a plough with which to till the land in the new seasons of wind, rain and sun and a three-stringed fiddle to sing to in their leisure time. Other tales talk of earth and sky being connected by a rope by which gods sent down cattle.

In other creation stories, the world passed through three ages. First was an ideal or golden age when gods, humans and animals lived in harmony in a sort of celestial nirvana. Then came the age of creation in which the supreme god separated sky and earth, with the latter intended to mirror the harmony of the former age, and humans formed in the gods’ image. But it did not work out, for humans were fallible and caused destruction, so introducing death: the Ashanti say humans set fire to the bush, so killing each other. The third age is the modern age where gods and humans live separately and people have lost their divine virtue of immortality completely. Through their myths and rituals, people are constantly trying to recreate the long-lost golden age.

Witchcraft and Sorcery

Sorcery has always played a big part in mythology all over Africa. Just as the difference between gods and spirits is blurred, so is the distinction between witchcraft and sorcery as conscious crafts. All that can be distinguished is the good or evil intent on the part of the person working the magic. The term ‘doctor’ (as in witch doctor) basically denotes a person skilled in any art or knowledge. So the doctor may be a diviner, herbalist, sage, storyteller, conjurer or dancer.

Some tribes claim that the ‘doctor’ is someone who develops special powers after a serious illness, during which time he communes with the spirits, having come close to death. Thereafter he is able to see spirits that are invisible to ordinary mortals. After apprenticeship to a professional and an initiation, he becomes skilled at dancing, singing and chanting, and is called upon to perform at funerals and other ceremonies.

The trance is a familiar phenomenon among many tribes. It is induced by doctors either spontaneously or by chewing certain hallucinatory herbs, inhaling their smoke or drinking a concoction which gives them superhuman strength and power to know and see things others cannot. The trance state may be caused, people believe, by a person’s spirit leaving his body, travelling off into unknown regions and being possessed by spirits of the dead, so that when he returns he begins to speak in a strange way, telling of the wonderful things he has seen. It is the possessing spirits that enable him to cure an illness, bring rain or luck in hunting.

Such spiritual doctors have often had an exotic, even unkempt, appearance, letting their hair grow, smearing it with oil and ochre and adorning it with shells, feathers and charms – the insignia of their profession. They may have a magic wand in the form of a zebra tail on a stick which they wave about during exorcisms or other operations. The fly whisk carried by some African leaders is a remnant of this fusion of chieftainship and magic.

Sorcerers and Witches

Sorcerers and witches are naturally evil and perform black magic out of a hatred for people. Their tools are the spirits they control and they can enslave people by causing their death, before reviving them as the living dead – zombies (from the Congo word zombi, meaning ‘enslaved spirit’). They also make fetishes possessed by servant spirits which fly through the air and attack victims. Often a victim dies of fright merely by seeing such a monster approaching.

Witches can change into animals at night or have animals as their familiars, especially baboons, hyenas, leopards or owls, and they can be seen flying through the air at night with fire coming out of their backsides. Their aim is to devour human bodies, dead or alive. But they can also change others into animals to be at their service. Mostly they brew poison, put it in the victim’s food and enslave his or her spirit. The muloyi (or mulaki, murozi, ndozi, ndoki – all of which translate approximately to ‘sorcerer’) of Central Africa creates an erirogho (magic) mixture from the ashes of dead bodies, does a ritual dance around it and then mixes it with the victim’s food or beer. Sometimes he adds the victim’s fingernails, hair or earth from his footsteps to the erirogho, wrapping it in leaves or burying it beside the victim’s house. The victim’s spirit will be forced to go and live in the erirogho while his body decays. Often the muloyi can be heard laughing in the darkness.

The Forest

Other Central African peoples regard the forest as being the other or spirit world inhabited by dwarf-demons or imps, the elokos, who feed off human flesh. Anyone entering their world must perform certain rituals. Sorcerers carve a fetish or piece of wood taken from the spirit world (which therefore possesses magical properties) and use it to kill their enemies. Every tree has its spirit, which survives in the wood even after it has been chopped down and made into a hut, drum or boat. Without the spirit’s goodwill, the carved item will bring only bad luck.

Foretelling the Arrival of Europeans

More than one witch doctor is said to have foretold the coming of Europeans to Africa. A certain prophet, Mulengo of Ilala (Zaire), foretold that, There will come people who are white and shining with bodies like locusts. Another, Podile, a chief of the Bapedi (South Africa), prophesied the arrival of the Boers: Red ants will come and destroy our land... . They will have baskets (hats) on their heads. Their feet will be like those of zebras (boots). Their sticks will give out fire. They will travel with houses drawn by oxen. Missionaries in the early nineteenth century left reports of seers who made their prophesies during a trance or illness. One missionary, Reverend E.W. White, referred to the prophet Mohlomi, who died in 1815, as the greatest figure in Basuto history; Mohlomi said he saw a cloud of red dust coming out of the east, consuming our tribes.

Animal Myths

Animals play a key role in mythology – and not only in Africa. African slaves took their stories around the world, often as fables, and adapted them to their new environments. The Uncle Remus stories of America’s southern states (Brer Rabbit was originally the hare; Brer Terrapin was originally the tortoise) came from West Africa, as did the Aunt Nancy (Kwaku Anansi) spider tales of the Caribbean, originally told by the Ashanti, Yoruba, lbo and Dahomey. It is believed that the Greek slave Aesop originally came from Ethiopia.

In the oldest versions of African myths, the characters are mostly animals, such as the serpent involved in the world’s creation. At this stage they are deities of supernatural size and strength. Anansi the spider can climb up to the heavens to commune with Nyame, the sky god (Ashanti); Simba the lion is a potent god from whom several African chiefs traced their ancestry (such as Haile Selassie, the Lion of Judah). Similarly, some Zulu chiefs have claimed descent from the python. Some clans bow before a python and address it as Your Majesty, offering it sacrifices of goats. In Mozambique there are traces of the worship of Sangu, the hippopotamus, a goddess who rules an underwater realm of lush, flowering meadows; she protects pregnant women and has to be sacrificed to by fishermen.

In the northwestern regions (Mali, Guinea), the sky god Faro sent down the antelope to teach the Bambara people farming skills; hence the many wooden carvings of the sacred antelope. According to the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, the mantis stole fire from the ostrich and passed it on to humans. The mantis is also credited among the Khosians of southwest Africa of inventing language through which animals and humans can converse.

Half-human Animals

As myths evolved, animals became half-human, half-animal characters who can be either good or evil, depending on their whim or veneration. They can take either form and foster human children, often coupling with human beings. Such children display both human and animal characteristics, so they can catch prey and speak animal languages. The human offspring of lions are particularly gifted: they can hunt at night and they know the bushlore and power of putting a spell on game (since no animal dies without the gods willing it). Ordinary mortals fear such half-human offspring, for they are brave, fierce warriors possessing magic and charms. Women love lion-men, who often become great rulers. As for lion-women, they grow up to be irresistibly attractive to men, who fall in love with them; the men, however, can end up being eaten by their wives. Lions are so potent that even a lion’s eyelash can give a woman power over her husband, so that she can have children merely by instructing his mind to do so.

Tricksters

At the third stage of evolution of myths, animals lose their divine qualities and take their animal shape, but act as humans do, with their own characteristics. Two particular animals stand out as tricksters who use cunning to outwit more powerful beasts: the hare and the tortoise. In parts of Africa where there are no hares or tortoises (the Congo River basin), the trickster is the little water antelope, the jackal or the turtle. The lion, elephant and especially the hyena are the foils, their brute force and stupidity being no match for the nimble wits of the hare or the slow, patient wisdom of the tortoise. Even the hare (in the famous race) is overcome by the tortoise’s quiet, dogged determination. A person of exceptional intelligence among the lbo is referred to as Mbai and among the lbani is Ekake, both meaning ‘tortoise’. Not only is the tortoise harmless, eating only fallen fruits of the forest, he is practically immune from attack and his silent nature implies mystery and veiled purpose – qualities valued in the human world.

Sacrifice and Offerings

All around people are spirits who have to be appeased and gods who have to be placated; in the past this could mean anything up to and including sacrifice. Since life is based on a balance in nature, there must be as much giving as receiving – someone has to die in order that others may live. If rain does not come, sacrifices and offerings must be made to induce the rain god to end a drought. Every tribe and region has its rituals and special doctors, priests and diviners who know exactly what offering must be made.

In many clans, it is the traditional duty of the eldest son to sacrifice to the clan spirits – those of his father and grandfather. Without such sacrifices the people could die and the sacrifice must be gladly offered, otherwise it is not acceptable. The common purpose of sacrifice is to create, celebrate or restore good relations with the deity of ancestral spirits. Usually the gods will be satisfied with nothing less than the slaughter of an animal (normally chicken, goat or lamb). The Dogon people of Mali, for example, have a special sacrificial rite called bulu (meaning ‘to revive’), restoring the community’s relations with the universe of life. The living sacrifice has a soul (kikinu) and vital force (nyama). As the victim’s blood flows into the earth, it carries its nyama. The deity, thus nourished, has the will to give back into the sacrifice’s liver, which is eaten by the priest in a ritual meal, thereby consuming the divine energy. These sacrificial rituals were transported with slaves to the Caribbean, especially Haiti, where the sacrifices (usually of chickens) come under the name voodoo/vodoun.

Mediums

Another sacrifice common to Mali is intended to